Ahoy There, Take A Left At The Light

We last met Mary McCall a few years ago, in the summertime. It was more specifically that portion of our summer known as Taste of Chicago.

We met McCall because we had complained in print about the lack of cooperation between the food festival and its surrounding cultural

institutions. It seemed amazing, and more than a bit disappointing, that many of the people traveling to Grant Park to stuff their faces were not made aware that within eyesight were a number of places in which they might stuff their minds.

The Field Museum, Adler Planetarium and Shedd Aquarium were all within a short walk of the fest; the Art Institute and Goodman Theatre, for gyros sake, were smack in the middle of the fest. Not only did attendance at these places suffer and dip during Taste, but the Art Institute also was forced to dig into its own pockets for $25,000 needed for extra security and cleaning.

But in 1987, Mary McCall tried to change that. She was then a director of the Chicago Tourism Council, the group that ran the Taste`s hospitality booth. She commissioned the making of a signpost (by the same clever fellow who had put Bear football helmets on the Art Institute lions) to the cultural neighbors, complete with distances, hours and admission prices.

She also-and this is why we have remembered her-had dinosaur footprints painted on the pavement leading from the fest to the Field Museum.

For that creative innovation alone, McCall`s latest venture is worthy of note. Plus, it sounds like a very decent thing.

It is called the Landlubbers Landmark Tour and seeks to capture the flavor of the architectural tours that take place in the river and lake during the summer. McCall got the idea herself and was immediately abetted by Jim Nikitas (who owns the Chicago Motor Coach Company) and Paul McCarthy (who runs Chicago From on the Lake).

The tours, which start this weekend, fittingly begin at the Boat Club at North Pier. They are 90-minute jaunts that kick off with coffee and rolls, and travel in a double-decker bus as far south as Buckingham Fountain and as far north as Fullerton. Tours-call 527-1977 for reservations-begin at 10 a.m. and noon Saturdays and Sundays, $12 for adults and $8 for children under 10.

Not having taken the tour, it is impossible for us to vouch for its intellectual/entertainment value. We have no problem, however, with lauding one of its purposes: to tell people more about their city.

Too many people in Chicago live in embarrassing ignorance of its past, of the lives that have shaped and shared the city`s history. Just listen to the answers given when you ask a person ``Why is Chicago called the Windy City?`` to discover one aspect of local ignorance.

This is a city with a raucous and rich history and if, on its surface, the fact that Chicago Bear George Blanda once kicked a football across the Chicago River (as McCall says one will learn on the tour) doesn`t seem important, be aware that it`s another thread in the colorful city fabric.